Forty years of Auckland Youth Choir
3 Sept 2024
This year, Auckland Youth Choir celebrates 40 years of music-making.
The choir's four decades of existence so far have included national tours and international performances, as well as collaborations with local and visiting groups. In 2024, AYC's goals remain pretty much the same as when the choir began: to create a strong team of young singers, to support their lifelong musical journeys, and to provide culturally and musically significant performance opportunities.
A brief history of AYC
Auckland Youth Choir was established in 1984, the result of an initiative of the committee of the Auckland Dorian Choir and a grant from the Northern Regional Arts Council. Three months after the choir's formation, its 100 singers presented their first concert at Epsom Girls Grammar School.
Over the next decade, AYC performed at the inaugural NZCF Sing Aotearoa festival in Ohakune and travelled to Australia twice, winning awards at the Sydney Performing Arts Challenge and the Melbourne International Festival of Choirs.
Since the mid-90s, the choir has collaborated with several visiting groups – Toronto Children's Chorus, the National Youth Orchestra of Australia, Junges Vokalensemble Hanover and Purdue Varsity Glee Club, to name a few — as well as ensembles within Aotearoa, including the National Youth Orchestra, Auckland Youth Orchestra and Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust.
A few of AYC's highlights over the last ten years include a 2016 trip to New York to perform British composer Paul Mealor's Stabat Mater as part of a massed choir at Carnegie Hall, a hop across the pond to Sydney in 2019 where it won gold at the Australia International Music Festival, and a gold medal at the 13th World Choir Games hosted in Tāmaki Makaurau this year.
R: AYC joined by Junges Vokalensemble Hanover at St Matthew-in-the-City, 2023
In 2020, AYC launched its Development and Mentoring Project, and despite disruptions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, this initiative is now in its fourth year. It supports the training of an Emerging Conductor, an Emerging Collaborative Pianist, and a Young Composer in Residence each year. The 2024 team of emerging artists - Annabel Yu (conductor), Matthew Spooner (pianist), and Fergus Byett & Grace Wellik (composers) will be showcasing their skills at the choir's 40th Anniversary Concert – more on that below!
AYC's longest-serving directors include Brigid McLafferty (1985-1990), Terence Maskell (1992-2000), Rostislava Pankova-Karadjov (2007-2013), and Lachlan Craig (2014-2020). Since 2023, the choir has been under the direction of David Squire, alongside Assistant Director of Music and collaborative pianist Claire Caldwell.
The festivities in store...
Auckland Youth Choir will celebrate its 40th year with two events this October. The first is a pub sing, bringing together present and past choir members for a social singalong at Galbraith's Alehouse in Mt Eden — followed, a week later, by a more formal offering: the choir's 40th Anniversary Concert at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. The current choir's 120 members would love their community of alumni and supporters to join them at these events. For all the details, and to RSVP or buy tickets, visit AYC's website.
NZCF extends our warmest congratulations to the following choirs in Aotearoa who are also celebrating significant anniversaries this year:
- Pakuranga Choral Society – 50 years
- Schola Sacra Choir – 50 years
- Kāpiti Chorale – 40 years
- Kōwhai Singers – 40 years
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